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Greenwood Mayor Resigns

Greenwood Mayor Del Gabbard resigned this week, citing “medical problems and the toll that this job has taken over the past two years.”

In his resignation letter dated Monday, Gabbard, who just began the last year of a four-year term, said it’s “not in my nature to quit a job before it is completed.”

“But given my medical problems and the toll that this job has taken over the past two years, I owe this decision to my family,” Gabbard wrote.

He added that he’s “extremely proud of the record we have built together.”

“We have turned a corner,” he wrote. “My only regret is that I will not be able to be beside you to see our work through to an end. I do believe that we have built a fiscal foundation upon which Greenwood can grow to new heights.”

He signed his resignation letter “Del Gabbard, private citizen.”

The Greenwood City Council is expected to officially accept Gabbard’s resignation at a special meeting at 2 p.m. today at City Hall. City Councilman and mayor pro tem Jimmy Gossett is expected to take over mayoral duties until a new mayor is elected.

In Greenwood’s form of government, the mayor is the chief administrator, responsible for the general management of the city.

Gabbard took office in 2011 after defeating a former city councilman, Bill McAlister, in the November 2010 election. At the time, he said he was tired of Greenwood’s “negative reputation” and was determined to restore a system of “admirable politics” to the city.

In 2012, Gabbard was out of action for about three months after suffering from pancreatitis and having gall-bladder removal surgery.